"There are two types of people in this world: those who like Neil Diamond and those who don't." (What About Bob)
Ok, I admit it...I am a fan.
I haven't always been though. I have had a love-hate relationship with Neil since day one. My mom and her three sisters are what we like to call OBSESSED. When they get together, undoubtedly one of them will bring up how good his butt looks in leather pants, how hot they think his chest hair is (gag!), or how he captured their young hearts back in the 70's. Family parties would not be family parties without blasting a little Neil. My cousins and I grew up with Neil, but we spent our younger years rolling our eyes and making sure our mothers knew how much we hated him.
This past summer, the tables turned a little bit. My extended family caravanned out to Nauvoo to visit my grandma on her mission there. As we traveled, our car load (my sister, brother, brother-in-law, and two cousins) insisted upon listening to Neil Diamond almost the entire way. "Coming to America", "Sweet Caroline" and "Forever in Blue Jeans" became our staples and we practiced them over and over again until we had every word just right. The funny thing was that we had to keep rotating drivers of the vehicle. As my mom got sick of our crazy singing, one of her sisters would substitute in and take her turn until she couldn't stand it anymore either. Upon arrival in Nauvoo, the "sensational six" jumped out of the car and insisted upon performing our Neil concert for Grandma very first thing.
Needless to say, the entire fam is converted to Neil. Yesterday, my cousins and I surprised our moms with Neil Diamond concert tickets for Dec 16, complete with t-shirts, glow-sticks, and the whole bit. I have never seen such excitement in my whole life. The four of them cried, laughed, sang, danced, and reminisced all night long.
I think the only thing missing for their concert experience is a poster that says "Welcome to the family Neil."
7 comments:
I have two comments:
1. I fit in a third party who barely knows who Neil Diamond is and what he sings.
2. Chest hair is beautiful.
Ronnie, I am more disgusted now than I was before.
So if it's not the chest hair, then it must be the tight leather pants that do it for you. Except now he's, like, 87 years old.
Crap. Now I have the synthesizer music from "Coming to America" stuck in my head.
Oh friends. This worship of Neil Diamond is so sad. You guys probably aren't aware of how terrible of a person Neil is. I will take this opportunity to enlighten you by allowing you to glimpse a rare studio recording of Neil on VH1's Storytellers.
http://www.devilducky.com/media/31749/
when i die and approach god on his throne, i will be quite surprised if i don't see neil diamond looking back at me.
when i'm on a date, if i pop in some neil and she can turn on my heart light, i'll know she's the one.
i suddenly feel like watching saving silverman
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